Down on the farm 55 last month 7/23

Klemm L25C G-ACXE

The preparation for the first flight went pretty much to plan. Tony had never flown a Klemm Swallow and of course there are no other British Klemm L25’s in existence. So the obvious route was to try and get Tony checked out in a British Aircraft Swallow 2 that was the plane that morphed from the British Klemm L25 (lots of changes to improve maintenance and to make it cheaper to make). We had been in contact with Jim Cresswell during the build and he had helped us with the oil pump problem and he had a working plane and was based in the New Forest not a million miles away and he was willing to check Tony out in his plane, We had been looking at the weather/wind at his strip and Jim C was off on site somewhere to recover a Stearman in Sitts cloth and would be away for about a week from the Saturday evening.

Using the Windy App we spotted a window on the Friday Morning about 9.00 so we planned an early departure from Palmers Farm. I prepped the Bristell and Tony arrived at 7.45 and we were airborne about 8.10 and arrived about 8.45 in Lymington. His runway is exceptionally narrow and the grass either side was uncut and long. Jim had already flown his plane twice that morning so Tony was briefed on the speeds/controls etc and then Tony was strapped in the front cockpit(lap only) and Jim did the first take off. They went up to about 2000’ and did some stalls, steep turns etc and then Tony landed it from the front seat. They came in debriefed and then changed over, Tony flying from the rear seat and he took off, cleared off for a few minutes and then came back and landed it.

With that under our belt the next thing to get right the first flight, so the plane had to have a last inspection and the paper work signed by the owners, inspector and pilot. The correct weather was the most important, so we were looking for the wind from the South East at say between 2 knots to 8 knots (so that we can use runway 22, no trees, A22, houses, and fields to land in) a high cloud base, no rain etc. Again using Windy we zoned into Tuesday 18.7.23 about midday, early afternoon. Francis Donaldson had asked to be there for the first flight as he had been in at the beginning when John Wakefield had started the project in about 1995. John had brought the plane in the 1980’s and it had broken its back during the transport back home.

So the morning of the 18.7.23 arrived and the weather was as advertised. Francis advised that it was raining in Turweston and later he said that he could not make as he had to stay at the office to hold the fort due to shortage of staff.

Over recent days Tony had flown over the strip and checked out the possible emergency landing fields and photographed them and in the morning of the Tuesday he had made a low pass in the Cessna he was instructing with to recheck the fields for the latest info on animals etc.

We had decided that we should not run the engine to long as due to the old design it has marginal cooling (small fins etc) but in the event the black plastic bag wrapped around the water ballast in the front seat needed taping up so the motor was run a bit longer.

We had been told not to bother with a radio as the engine does not lend itself to such things, but we tried a different approach. Tony has a Bluetooth headset, so we coupled his phone to the headset and then he rang me and I was in contact receiving information all around the circuit.

With no other excuse left it was line up and go. So Tony powered it up and took off, it was slow to get the tail up and take off but it did and he reported back oil pressures and rpm, handling etc all were good apart from the low rpm. Tony climbed to 2000’ overhead and after stalls, steep turns etc came down for a low pass (see pic) and back around the circuit for a perfect landing on 22. The Swallow had landed and that was the first time since 6^th April 1939. 84 years and 3 months, I define that as a quick build!

Hopefully John Wakefield (the main driver behind the rebuild) and Peter Harrison (first inspector) are looking down and smiling!

And I must give an extra thank-you to Phil Trangmar for all he has done to make this happen, inspecting, making bits and getting Jim and I together to achieve the completion of the build to flying, and especially to my wife Lesley for putting up with it all, hours in the workshop, making cakes for us, hours on the computer!!

Meetings and events over the coming year

We need ideas for strut talkers to cover, Sept and October.

We have 2 strut trophies which I have on the window ledge waiting for a suitable candidate; please nominate a club member for something outstanding.

Tony Palmer

Got a CO detector in your aircraft?

The CAA have recently published the third version of their investigation report into carbon monoxide detectors in GA aircraft. Worth a read if you are thinking of buying/replacing your detector. Find it here: SN-2020/003: Carbon Monoxide Contamination Minimisation & Detection in General Aviation Aircraft

Events

This month’s Strut evening is on Wednesday 2nd August at The Longshore, Shoreham; beer ‘n chat.

For the full list of events, see the site Events page.

• Fly-in at Palmers Farm 5.8.23
• September strut night: TBA
• Goodwood Revival 8/10th
• October strut night: TBA
• November strut night: Film show
• December strut night: Xmas dinner